Communication

Communications is fundamental to the existence and survival of humans as

well as to an organization. It is a process of creating and sharing ideas,
information, views, facts, feelings etc. It can be done vocally (through verbal
exchanges), through written media (books, websites, and magazines), visually
(using graphs, charts, and maps) or non-verbally (body language, gestures,
pitch of voice, and tone). Communication is the key to the Directing function of
management.
The importance of communication in an organization can be summarized as
follows:
 Communication promotes motivation by informing and clarifying the
employees about the task to be done, the manner they are performing
the task, and how to improve their performance if it is not up to the
mark.
 Communication is a source of information to the organizational members
for decision-making process as it helps identifying and assessing
alternative course of actions.
 Communication also plays a crucial role in altering individual’s attitudes, ,
a well-informed individual will have better attitude than a less-informed
individual. Organizational magazines, journals, meetings and various
other forms of oral and written communication help in moulding
employee’s attitudes.
 Communication also helps in socializing. In todays life the only presence
of another individual fosters communication. It is also said that one
cannot survive without communication.
 As discussed earlier, communication also assists in controlling process. It
helps controlling organizational member’s behaviour in various ways.
There are various levels of hierarchy and certain principles and guidelines
that employees must follow in an organization. They must comply with
organizational policies, perform their job role efficiently and
communicate any work problem and grievance to their superiors. Thus,
communication helps in controlling function of management.
An effective and efficient communication system requires managerial
proficiency in delivering and receiving messages. A manager must discover
various barriers to communication analyze the reasons for their occurrence and
take preventive steps to avoid those barriers. Thus, the primary responsibility
of a manager is to develop and maintain an effective communication system in
the organization.